Messages from Home
By Sara Garden Armstrong
Introduction by Cassandra Langer New York: Sara Garden Armstrong, 1994. Edition of 40.

9" x 11.5" (22.86 x 29.21cm); 32 unnumbered pages. Interior pages of transparent film, translucent paper and coated laser paper. Bound in cover off vinyl sleeve with two screws at spine. Slipped in case of sandblasted plastic. Signed and numbered by the artist.

Jon Coffelt, "Sara Garden Armstrong Threads and Layers": "This book is a catalogue for a solo exhibition that was cancelled. The images come from work scheduled to be exhibited at a gallery in Amersterdam's red-light district. Armstrong's intent was to provide the viewer with an experience of the show and a feel for its location, thus the inclusion of subtle pornographic images printed in red strips, eventually revealing the gallery's street address. Found images, photographs, and photo-collages – often layered – work together, drawing the viewer into a kind of dark journey. The experience differs each time this journey is undertaken. The cover – a collage of pulp, rust, and film – gives the book the feeling of a relic or historical document. Even though the exhibition was never held, the informative essay by Cassandra Langer provides documentation of each piece as well as this general statement:

At first glance, it would appear that Sara Garden
Armstrong's art is mechanized and highly technical – a
product of industry not nature. However, upon more
careful consideration, one realizes that the work is quite
organic, relying heavily upon intuition and metaphysical
ecology. These works reflect an admixture of
experiences that run the gamut from the ominous,
fantastic, nostalgic and pleasurable, to the sexually
provocative.

$150